Disclaimer: MTNN and anything in it isn't mine.

Challenge: my MTNN Rarepairs challenge at the lj community nougami_neuro. (Express, in any media you wish, an MTNN rarepair.)

Warning: Unless I say otherwise, assume a chapter has manga spoilers.

Pairings this chapter: Todoroki/Tsukushi, Todoroki/Sasazuka, Todoroki/Ishigaki

A/N: Am I dead or was my MTNN muse just hiding during 2010? Anyway, I'm basically returning to this fandom and would appreciate anything you have to say about this story. Please review. Updates might not be as regular as I'd like, but I have no plans to abandon this and your comments will spur me on. Pairing requests are more than welcome. ;)

Enjoy!~

There's no place for love at work, but Todoroki thinks she might just love him.

.

Tsukushi is very efficient; he works quickly, and quietly gets on with things. He's the kind of police officer that's nearly always overlooked by his career-oriented, ambitious, tunnel-visioned colleagues (such as herself, she'll admit), but without him, the whole department would fall down.

She's had a particularly bad day and she's at her wits' end, so the steaming coffee cup he sets down on her desk is the best coffee she's ever tasted (the best coffee she never asked for).

And love has no place at work, but she thinks she might just love that coffee.

.

Sasazuka is everything and nothing that she'd expected. She respects his reputation - how could she not? - but his attitude surprises her. She focuses everything she has on doing her job thoroughly, on getting all the evidence she can and needs before passing judgement, and her case success rate is one of the best in her department - but not, she reminds herself every time he says or does something she doesn't agree with, as good as his. And she respects him, but it really irks her, because he's thorough too but just so dispassionate.

When he does something she really doesn't agree with, she wishes she could be as dispassionate as he'd been.

He'd managed to get in under her skin - and it's work, but his death hurts so much she thinks she must have loved him.

.

Ishigaki is an idiot. Full stop.

Whenever she calls him 'sempai', it occurs to her that she's saying that an idiot is of a higher status than she is, but she hasn't really got a choice. Once she started calling him that because of their stupid bet, the name sort of stuck - and what other sempai has she got now, anyway?

It's not as though she can't learn from him, either. When she thinks hard enough, she can just about get past his immaturity to see why he became a police officer. The way he behaves, you'd think he should be on television, but get past it, you'll see he has a brain. Somewhere.

For one thing, he really is amazingly detail-oriented. She may be far more sensible, more able to look objectively at the facts, but often he can piece together the puzzle faster than she can. And for another, he can deal with stress. Work is her sanctuary, but if it's work that's the problem, it's not a sanctuary at all, and she gets too stressed out. It's at times like those that she wishes she could be like him, that she knew how to relax.

Todoroki usually skips the office outings, but this time, he persuades her to come, somehow managing to keep from her what they'll be doing until she gets there. Which is karaoke - chosen by him, of course. She senses that this wasn't at the top of his list, but that he compromised on it because he figured no one else would agree to go to whatever otaku event that was coming up.

Even so, it's hell for her.

The others (mostly) enjoy it - and if they don't, they get drunk enough that they don't care - but they don't sing karaoke next time; next time, Todoroki suggests a dinner at a posh restaurant, and Ishigaki suggests that they go sailing on his friend's cousin's boat. Ishigaki wins, and he drags her along to it, too.

This time is hell for everyone (at one point, Ishigaki gets a little too lively and tries to commandeer the boat), but it's actually kind of fun - in a I've-been-chasing-serial-killers-all-week-and-it's-been-really-horrible-and-now-I'm-kind-of-suicidal way, that is.

Even so, the next time, Todoroki gets her meal. "This isn't so bad, is it, sempai?" she asks him, not sure whether she wants him to hate something this conservative or enjoy it, even if it is only dinner with work colleagues.

"Call me Shun," he mumbles, blushing a little.

And suddenly it's not work. Not anymore.